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purestealth

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Why does my keyboard not work with DRAC in Console mode?

I have a bunch of servers hosted in my data center that have DRAC cards in them so I can access and administer them remotely.  Some of the servers have DRAC 3 and some have DRAC 4.

All my DRAC 3 & 4 cards seem to be working fine except for one.

On this one particular DRAC 3 card its like it does not see or get any keyboard input whatsoever.  I open into Console mode, and I can see the console but I can not type anything.  My keystrokes never make it to the console.  The DRAC is working fine for server reboots, but I can not type at all, its like it does not see my keystrokes at all.

I have tried to access this one particular DRAC 3 from different computers with different OS's to try and rule out some sort of JAVA issue or misconfiguration on the client side, but the desktop computers are all able to access the other DRAC's which tells me its not a misconfiguration client side.

Is there something I need to do or enable on this DRAC 3 so that it will allow me to type remotely on the console?

Thanks in advance for assistance with this.
Avatar of lnkevin
lnkevin
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You may want to update DRAC firmware on that server. Download and use the procedure on the bottom of the page for firmware update on Linux:
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R136875&formatcnt=6&libid=0&fileid=182842

K
Avatar of purestealth
purestealth

ASKER

Hello

I think your link is wrong because you linked me to the DRAC 4 when I am trying to fix a DRAC 3.  I believe the link should be http://support.us.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R104824&formatcnt=6&libid=0&fileid=135262 Please let me know is this correct?  Also I am running CentOS 4.6.

So anyway, I have downloaded Rac_FRMW_LX_R104824.BIN

Then I chmod +x Rac_FRMW_LX_R104824.BIN (so that its executable)

Then I ran ./Rac_FRMW_LX_R104824.BIN -c (To check if its compatible with my server)

Which gives me the output below:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Collecting inventory...
......
Running validation...

This Update Package is not compatible with any of the devices detected in your system.

/usr/src/drac
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I thought that it just may not be seeing the DRAC since I am running this remotely from SSH (also I am root when I do all this).  I think the BIN cant see the DRAC or I need to be SSH into the DRAC to try and run this command locally.  However when I try to SSH the DRAC by its IP it says connection refused.  Does it run on a different port?  Or is it just not possible to SSH a DRAC directly?

So I gave up on running the BIN and figured I would try to use racadm by the following:

/usr/sbin/racadm -r [SERVER_IP_ADDRESS] -u root -p [ROOT_PASSWD] fwupdate -f Rac_FRMW_LX_R104824.BIN

But this produces no output, no error message or anything helpful.

So now I am left stuck wondering "How can I flash this firmware to the DRAC 3 remotely"???

Your assistance is appreciated.
Yes I have tried this steps. Please see my previous note.

How do I get this firmware loaded to the DRAC?  Do I have to setup a TFTP server?  I dont currently have that, can I get the firmware to the DRAC any other way?
Do I have to setup a TFTP server?
The reason I tried to point you to the instruction is setting up TFTP server. It is the only way I think that you can use the remote command. Otherwise, you may have to touch the server for manual firmware update. Check this guide for TFTP server set up in using drac command:
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&docid=238F8C922376A9CCE040A68F5B286DAE&journalid=43D2906CBFD70C12E040A68F272846D6&Query=&SystemID=&ServiceTag=&contenttype=-1&os=-1&component=-1&lang=-1&doclang=en&toggle=false

K
Its looking for a file called firming.rm1

Where can I get this file?

There server is a Power Edge 1650.  I am on the dell site trying to locate this file.

Is it just a matter that I need to rename the file?  Or is this a specific file?

Thanks
In addition to my above comment.

I downloaded http://support.us.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=ca&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R104824&formatcnt=6&libid=0&fileid=135262

I then extracted that BIN file using the --extract flag.

So I now have a directory called 'extracted', inside that folder is a file called firming.bin, but when I am trying to update the DRAC with racadm over TFTP, the TFTP server tells me its looking for a file called friming.rm1.

Here's what I need to know:
Is this firming.rm1 a specif file? or can I rename firming.bin to firming.rm1?

Please let me know.
You may have a conflict with any external pci card. I saw someone has the same problem with yours and he manages to get it thru:
http://osdir.com/ml/hardware.dell.poweredge/2003-02/msg00497.html

K
Hi

Sorry, I don't understand what your trying to get at with your last post??

Yes I already saw that link, I am not sure how that helps or answering the question at hand.

I need to update the firmware, so I need to know can I rename firming.bin to firming.rm1?

Above is the key question.  Can I do this?  Or will this damage the card?
Hi, are you still with me?
I am sorry for a long delay due to some issue at work Anyway, it will not damage your card. You can give it a try.

K
Ok I have been going over this many different ways I cant seem to get this firmware to flash.  I even tried to flash it from the web interface but its a no go.

I am wondering do you know how to flash this "exact" card remotely with the latest firmware?  Perhaps the commands I demonstrated previously are wrong?

If you can please provide a step by step of how to remotely flash this particular card I would greatly appreciate it.  I have gone over every possibility I could think of and am not getting anywhere....
Ok, as it turns out this card was not defective.

It needed to have its firmware upgraded......  I am told that there "is" a way to upgrade the firmware remotely, unfortunately we were not able to get to that solution here on experts-exchange.

The company we bought the DRAC from sent us a new one with updated firmware and the new DRAC is now working perfectly.

I still wish I knew how to update this firmware remotely ---- but for now the issue has been solved with a replacement of the card.

I will close out on this question for now as we did not come to a solution to fix the old one by updating the firmware remotely.

Want to thank Inkeven for his efforts to attempt at troubleshooting this.
You are welcome. Sorry for the unsolvable solution, but to be honest with you, it could be hardware problem since I use the same command with other DRAC making firmware updated.

K
I have asked the Data Center techs to try and update the firmware locally for that card in a non production machine.  I dont know when exactly they will do this, but I will post back here if it turns out the card is "not" defective.  The card works for everything except the remote console and from what I was told by the supplier this is a common issue with outdated firmware.  So I will post back here once they confirm if the firmware was able to be updated locally or not.

Thanks again.
UPDATE:

Ok we have flashed the firmware to the latest recommended by Dell - the problem still persists.....  Still not able to use the keyboard.

One interesting thing to note.

The keyboard DOES work when the system first boots.  This means you can get into the BIOS and configure the settings for the BIOS etc.... but as soon as the OS loads the keyboard no longer works.

So we can be reasonably sure there is no hardware issue here since the DRAC does work when the system first loads, so it seems to be some software related issue once the OS boots.

Any ideas?
Did you just tell me that the problem was gone when you replace it with another DRAC? If it is a yes, it's clearly the card is malfunction.

K
Nope

We updated the firmware on the DRAC that was removed and placed it back in.  It seems the DRAC works perfectly until the OS loads.  Back when this question first started we had assumed it was faulty firmware and that by upgrading the firmware it may resolve the issue.

Im just reporting back that updating the firmware does not resolve the issue, there seems to be some conflict between the software of the OS and the DRAC which is very strange the DRAC accepts keyboard inputs up to the time when the OS loads.
Did you run the same OS on other boxes where DRAC 3 installed? Same server hardware?
Check the following document from Dell on the hardware and OS support section to be sure yours is covered.

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/power/en/ps2q02_bell

K
Hi

Yup the same drac is intalled in other servers same make and same os (PowerEdge 1650 and CentOS) - the DRAC's are working in the other machines both during boot up and after the OS loads.

But this particular one does not respond to the keyboard after the OS loads.  Everything else between the servers is the same.

Thanks again
If they are the same hardware made and OS, you may want to make sure they(the servers) are also at the same firmware, bios level. If you can, reload firmware and bios on that particular server.

K
Hello

Yup I have already done that - both servers have the exact same BIOS version A11 and the DRAC's also have the same firmware (the most recent firmware)

Thats one of the first troubleshooting steps I took, but unfortunately it did not resolve the issue.

Thanks again
I am out of an idea besides telling you to blame on the bad DRAC card or re OS the box.  Sometime, things are just unsolvable until re-OS.

K
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purestealth

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I just had the same issue.  Login to your DRAC and change the console type from Native to Java.  Once I did this i could use my keyboard.  It seems to be a problem with DRac plugin on my local computer.  Good luck.  
Avatar of Nagendra Pratap Singh
This worked for me too. (Changed Native to Java.)

Server was R715 and iDrac is 6.
I had this issue on a server with iDRAC7.  Problems first appeared after I changed the IP address on the iDRAC config.  After some digging, I was able to get my keyboard working again within the Virtual Console Native Plug-In by adding the new iDRAC IP to Trusted Sites in IE.